Northern (2-1) led only 13-6 at intermission in a half the Polar Bears completely dominated. Rick Mauck’s troops outgained the Wildcats 166-47 in total yards the first half.

“I thought we could have been ahead two or three touchdowns at the half. We really outplayed them in the first half,” Mauck said. “Those mistakes we made in the second half cost us.”

Right out of the gate Northern went three-and-out to start the third quarter. And then came that 6-yard punt that set the Wildcats up at the Polar Bears 27-yard line.

Two snaps later dazzling freshman Shyheim Brown zipped around right end 19 yards for a quick touchdown.

You could feel the tide starting to turn.

“They had all the momentum the first half. It was in the balance and you were sort of wondering who was going to grab the momentum,” Mechanicsburg coach Chris Hakel said. “This was a really big dose of adversity the first half. We came out fast and the defense played fantastic in the second half.”

Three snaps later Mechanicsburg (3-0) had the ball again when Andrew Spanos picked off a pass. He put the Wildcats in front for the first time when he hauled in a 6-yard pass from Mitchell on third down to make it 19-13.

“Everybody got more life and we were just going crazy. And it carried through the rest of the game,” Spanos said. “We realized at halftime we weren’t playing our best game. Every coach gave us a speech at halftime and we went out and did something about it.”

Northern punched back to slow down the Wildcats’ surge with a 10-play, 78-yard march. Trey Vajdic capped the march with an 18-yard bolt up the middle that forged a 19-19 deadlock.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Wildcats, though.

Brown returned the ensuing kickoff 42 yards to keep Mechanicsburg cooking. The ‘Cats made it three scores in as many tries Ramsey, who completed only four passes but threw a pair of second-half touchdown passes, hit sophomore Breon Coke on a post from 23 yards out on fourth-and-4 to put Mechanicsburg ahead for good.

Following a Camryn Rice interception when he jumped the route, Ramsey sealed the victory with a 31-yard burst up the middle on a quarterback sneak on fourth down.

“It’s been a long time,” Hakel said when asked about being 3-0. “We still have a lot to clean up. These kids are staring to believe and starting to put things together. If we can put it together start to finish we’ll be okay.”